Bug 18644

Summary:	/etc/crontab in vcron errors by default
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Jeekay <jaykay>
Component:	Current packages	Assignee:	Aron Griffis (RETIRED) <agriffis>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	normal	CC:	mr_bones_
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Jeekay 2003-04-02 10:52:34 UTC

The default /etc/crontab that comes with vcron contains lines similar to:
 *  * * *      root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly

The `root' part in that line seems like its appeared from some other cron that
possibly supports running as different uids for a given crontab. Unfortunately,
it causes vcron to complain noisily that command `root' could not be found and
so the cronjobs in /etc/crontab are never actually run.

Comment 1 Mr. Bones. (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2003-04-02 19:26:47 UTC

Not according to the man page for vcron:

"The format of a cron command is very much the V7 standard, with a  num-
ber  of upward-compatible extensions.  Each line has five time and date
fields, followed by a user name if this is  the  system  crontab  file,
followed  by  a  command."

Maybe you could post a little more information about your system.

Comment 2 Jeekay 2003-04-03 08:49:35 UTC

Hmm... rereading the man page, you are quite right. There is a step somewhere in the install documentation that requires you to type `crontab /etc/crontab' as root though, turning it into a user crontab. Let me see if I can find it real quick..

Argh... it says to do that for dcron/fcron but *not* vcron. Completely my fault, sorry. I'll go crontab -r :)

Comment 3 Aron Griffis (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2003-04-03 19:17:01 UTC

Thanks Michael for looking into this...